Jayshree Samanta, PhD
Assistant Professor, Comparative Biosciences
Veterinary Medicine Building
2015 Linden Dr
Madison, WI 53706
- Organ System/Disease Focus
- Neural Stem Cells, Myelin Disorders
- Aligned Research Focus
- Basic stem cell science, Glial development, Remyelination
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION:
Our lab focuses on how neural stem cells generate myelin in the brain during development as well as during recovery from a demyelinating insult or remyelination. The myelin sheath is a specialized membrane synthesized by oligodendrocytes that wraps around the nerves in the brain. Understanding the origin of myelinating cells and the signals which trigger their activation, migration and differentiation has major therapeutic implications for myelin disorders. We are examining these processes in several mouse models of myelin diseases including Multiple Sclerosis and Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease. In addition, we also study the abnormal regulation of neural stem cells and glial development in mouse models of Down Syndrome.
SELECTED REFERENCES:
- Samanta J and Kessler JA (2004). Interactions between ID and OLIG proteins mediate the inhibitory effects of BMP4 on oligodendroglial differentiation. Development 131(17): 4131- 4142.
- Samanta J, Burke GM, McGuire T, Pisarek AJ, Mukhopadhyay A, Mishina Y and Kessler JA (2007). Bmpr1a signaling determines numbers of oligodendrocytes and Calbindin-expressing interneurons in the cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 27(28): 7397-7407.
- Samanta J, Grund EM, Silva HM, Lafaille JJ, Fishell G and Salzer JL (2015). Inhibition of Gli1 mobilizes endogenous neural stem cells for remyelination. Nature, 526: 448-452.